Who: Jocelyn and Caius When: evening, Wednesday, Dec 27th Where: his office at the marina Status: Complete
Hours, it had been fucking hours of fog. Caius had still been working when it rolled in, blanketing the marina in a matter of seconds, changing the quality of light and making everything feel strange. His office had big picture windows that faced the ocean, but he couldn’t see more than a foot or two into it, so the ocean might as well have disappeared. Not long after, Caius had discovered that the internet was down and his phone wasn’t working. Mere minutes after that, he’d found out that nobody else’s connections were working in the building either. There weren’t many of them left -- himself, his secretary and her daughter, a couple of other office staff, and a janitor.
At first it was an annoyance. An inconvenience. But as the hours went on and it got closer to night time, Caius started to feel more stressed about it, more antsy. Nothing felt right, he couldn’t get in touch with Reagan or his family, not even on the office phones. They were internet-dependent, and that was obviously down. It made Caius want to cuss and kick things, but he was doing everything he could to keep his cool. He had an audience, a muggle one, he couldn’t let himself lose control around them.
Feeling responsible, since he was the boss here, Caius stepped out of his office to check on everyone in the reception area again. A couple of them had left to try and make their way home, but Caius didn’t feel too optimistic for them. There was nothing but blackness outside of the windows now that the sun had gone down. Caius really hoped Reagan was home, and hope was starting to not be enough. “Everyone doing all right?” he asked quietly as he looked around at the small clump of people. There were couches, food and water in the break room, and the electricity still had the heat going, but he didn’t know what else to ask.
Jocelyn was pissed off herself, but more than anything, she was worried. Her dad had driven her mom to work that morning due to her car not starting, and Jocelyn had agree to pick her up at four. She had been sitting in the lobby waiting for her mom to finish up when the fog had rolled in and essentially trapped them there. It made her nervous, and while she was happy her mom was with her, she still worried about her dad. Was he home? The school was on winter break, but she knew her dad still went in to work for a few hours a day. What about Jacob, or Sage? Where they safe? Her mom had tried the business phones but everytime she dialed 9 to get an outside line, nothing happened.
Jocelyn's restlessness grew as the hours ticked by and it was starting to feel like they would be there all night. No way could she drive home in this. No one could. When Caius appeared, Jocelyn approached him. "Do you have back up generators here? In case the power goes out?" This was a D'Onofrio building and they owned half the damn town. Jocelyn had to believe that they were better equipped for this shit than anywhere else in Point Pleasant, save for maybe the hospital.
If someone had told Caius the name of his secretary’s daughter, he’d forgotten it already. He was internally irritated that she was there, because she wasn’t an employee and therefore couldn’t be bought off from suing over all this with a nice fat bonus. Not that D’Onofrio Management could really be held liable for the weather, but people had sued over less. It was always a pain in the ass. Caius looked at her calmly and nodded. “We have two generators, so if the power goes out, we should be fine,” he answered. “I don’t suppose anyone’s gotten a hold of anyone outside?” Caius sounded doubtful.
Jocelyn pulled her phone from the pocket of her pea coat and shook her head. Still no bars, and when she tried to send another text to Jacob, it came back undeliverable. "Nothing," she said, slipping the phone back into her pocket. "My mom... Michelle has tried the main line a couple of times, but it won't take an outside line. I thought I saw the light from Linoge but it's fading in and out. I'm not sure if that means the light is failing or the fog is moving in patches." She knew all about the D'Onofrio family. Well, she knew the rumors anyway. Point Pleasant Six descendants. Witches. Jocelyn hadn't believed it growing up, but now she wondered. "I don't know if the lack of signal is just in here, or if someone would be able to get a bar or two outside."
Nobody immediately jumped up to volunteer. Caius couldn’t really blame them. He’d tried that before they all realized just how stuck they were, but he didn’t say so right away. Going outside could be helpful to him. Maybe something had changed and he could get signal, or maybe he could get a better sense of what was going on. He could bring the Obscurities out to see what they saw, and if their eyes could cut through the fog ... Caius hadn’t decided if he should leave these people yet. If nothing else, maybe he could send them out to find Reagan. He glanced toward the big windows set into the wall, but they showed nothing but blackness. “I’ll go and check,” he said to the girl. “Just give me a minute.” Caius turned to go back to his office to fetch his coat.
"I can go with you," Jocelyn said, starting to follow Caius. "We can both try, and it might be safer to have two people out there than one." She knew that sounded mildly ominous, but Jocelyn had grown up in Point Pleasant just as Caius had, so she was pretty sure he knew exactly what this town could do to a person when shit like this happened. The fact that the fog seemed to only be interfering with the electronics like their phones and not the actual electricity was beyond weird, and it put a sinking feeling in her stomach.
Caius looked back over his shoulder before he half-stepped into his office to pluck his coat off of the hook it was hanging on inside the door. He didn’t necessarily need it since he rarely got really cold, but it regulating his own temperature was less important than finding out what was going on. “Or you can stay here where it’s safer and warmer,” he said to Jocelyn, the annoyance barely hidden in his tone. He could always try to send the Obscurities out from the privacy of his office, but he didn’t feel that would work as well. He needed to feel the air. Without an audience. “We don’t know who’s running around insane out there, like last time.” He started back down the hall toward the lobby.
His obvious annoyance with her only seemed to intensify Jocelyn's. She didn't want to be there any more than he did, but things were what they were and she didn't think she had the patience to just sit around without knowing what was going on. She needed to be active. Useful, even in a small way. "All the more reason why you shouldn't go out there alone," Jocelyn pointed out, still on Caius's heels. She hadn't been there when the bad fog had rolled in last time, but she had heard plenty about it. It had triggered violence in people. Jocelyn wasn't sure if this was the same kind of fog, but what if it was? What if Caius went out there and was affected by it and he came back in to hurt people? "There could be something worse out there, for all you know. It's better to have someone with you in case something happens."
Caius shot the girl a bemused look, still walking as he slipped into his coat. “And you’re going to protect me?” he posed. That was a fucking laugh. He could feel that she wasn’t a witch, and if she was Something Else, which Caius highly doubted, he was almost certainly more powerful than her. “Stay in here with your mother. I’ll be gone five minutes. If I sound like a raving lunatic at the door, don’t let me back in, obviously.” He was sure the girl was feeling stir-crazy and antsy, but he didn’t want the extra responsibility of trying to watch over her out there, nor did he want the nosy company when his eyes went black and he focused through the Obscurities. Caius wanted privacy and silence, neither of which would come with this girl being his shadow.
"Well that would all depend on how big of a dick you are," Jocelyn said simply. Caius D'Onofrio had been three years ahead of Jocelyn in school but she still remembered what an ass he was. If he wanted to go out there on his own, then that was his choice. It was a stupid one, if you asked her, but men could be dumbasses, especially when it came to thinking they knew better than the people around them. "Five minutes," she said, pausing at the door. "Then I'm going to assume you were eaten by some fog monster and I shouldn't unlock the door for anything."
“Fair,” Caius agreed in clipped tones. He didn’t give a single shit if she thought he was a dick or not. This was his office and he would call the shots. He had the keys to the building in his coat pocket anyway, so he could get back in no matter what, but Jocelyn didn’t need to know that. The other people in the room were looking at them warily, but Caius hardly spared them a glance as he unlocked the front glass doors and stepped outside. The drop in temperature was dramatic, and though it didn’t bother him overly much, Caius could tell it was a deadly sort of cold. He walked a few paces away from the door, hoping the fog would envelop him a bit from prying eyes. He took his phone out of his pocket and looked down at it. It was still a useless brick, that hadn’t seemed to change, so he stopped focusing on it. He called up the Obscurities instead, his eyes going black as he tried to see through the fog.
Jocelyn felt impatient and annoyed, wishing her mom had been able to sneak out of work fifteen minutes earlier. They probably would have been home, or almost home, when the fog rolled in. She checked her phone again, but nothing had changed in terms of having service. She hovered by the doors, glancing out the glass every now and then to see what Caius was doing, or if it looked like he was making a call. With the fog Jocelyn couldn't see him very well but he hadn't walked so far out that he disappeared in it or anything. It was frustrating, not knowing what was going on.
The world in front of Caius cleared when he looked through the Obscurities’ eyes ... not completely, things started to get a bit fuzzy and then faded away a dozen yards out or so, but it made him feel much more functional. Caius thought again about just getting in his car and driving away. But there were people stuck in his building, and that made them his responsibility. If anything got any worse and he’d left them? Well, he didn’t want that on what little conscience he had. So, he sent the spirits out of himself, silently imprinting ‘find Reagan’ as their mission. Caius sent them in the direction of Belladonna first, in case Reagan was stuck at work, and the world went foggy again as the connection was reduced to just the tether that bound them to him. They could move fast, but not fast enough for Caius to keep standing out there without looking suspicious, so he hunched his shoulders and turned to go back inside. His stomach was fluttery with the sense of movement and Otherness. “Still no signal,” he declared when he walked back in. “I can’t see or hear anything out there, and it’s still freezing.”
"Shit," Jocelyn muttered. Some stubborn part of her wanted to get her mom and try to drive home, but she knew that would be a stupid idea. If her car broke down or they had to stop, it was cold enough to do real damage to them if they couldn't keep their car running. It didn't help that this office was near the ocean and the bitter wind coming off the water was more or less intolerable. She felt way too restless to just sit down and wait, and frankly, most of the chairs in the lobby were taken by Caius's employees who had gotten stuck there like Jocelyn had. "I heard something about the fog," Jocelyn said to Caius after a moment, her voice lowered. "A while ago. That it did things to people."
Considering what had happened with the last fog, maybe Caius should’ve been more cautious walking into it. It had made him and Reagan nearly murder one another, after all. But he’d sensed this coming, hadn’t he? A nagging in the back of his mind for a few days. He could feel that it was different. He shrugged out of his coat, looking mildly at Jocelyn. “Yes, there was some ... chemical in it, that drove people to violence,” he told her, equally quietly. He arched a thick brow at her. “I take it you weren’t in town. This is different, I think. I feel fine.” Caius glanced thoughtfully back toward the glass doors. “It’s still not good, though,” he added in a murmur, almost to himself.
Jocelyn snorted and looked outside. "Chemical. Sure. You would think after a while they would try to find another excuse. But I guess if people keep believing it, why stray from what works?" She folded her arms, trying to keep from scowling. Point Pleasant hadn't changed a bit. Hearing Caius's explanation reminded Jocelyn of Cooperdale, and whatever had been in there that drove she and her friends to violence. It hadn't been fog, that was for sure. "But no, I wasn't here when it happened. But I know enough to know this definitely isn't a good thing. And we could be here for a while."
Caius was hardly listening to her. She was just some younger girl, pouting and huffing and put-out at being stuck. If he hadn’t been on his own territory, Caius might have been feeling similarly, but at that moment he was comfortable where he was and too focused on finding Reagan. The Obscurities had descended on Belladonna, and he got the impression of negativity from them -- Reagan wasn’t there. They continued on their course, following the road only they could see toward home. Caius hoped they wouldn’t find her there either, and she was safely in the house. “Yes we could indeed,” he said to Jocelyn after a couple of seconds’ pause. “You’re safer here than you would be elsewhere. This building has protections in place. So I recommend you get comfortable.”
Jocelyn was absolutely put out about being stuck. It was just easier to be put out than scared. She didn't think Caius remembered her, or even knew who she was, and that was fine with Jocelyn. But she knew plenty about this town, at least enough to be worried for their safety, even during what most would think of as just a freak storm or something. She eyed Caius for a moment before her lips twitched. "Protections. You mean magic?" She was mostly joking, but having heard plenty of rumors about the D'Onofrio family, Jocelyn was still kind of curious to see how reaction to her question, if he even had one.
Well wasn’t that bold of her? An indulgent, amused smile crossed Caius’s face, and he was opening his mouth to ask her why she might think that when he sensed an overwhelming excitement from the Obscurities. Before he could stop it, Caius’s expression blanked out and his eyes went full black and Jocelyn faded away as the spirits took over his vision. He could see Reagan, and relief washed down his back. She was in her car, and she was antsy and pissed and kept looking at her phone. Caius couldn’t really tell where the car was, somewhere between Belladonna and home, but at least she was safe and somewhere warm. He wanted so badly to linger, to keep looking at her and watch over her though all of this -- if she’d still had her magic, he might’ve been able to communicate with her through the spirits, but Caius thought they were shit out of luck there. Plus, there was a human woman staring him in the face, and that drew him back into himself. He blinked rapidly and his dark brown eyes returned to their normal shade. Caius silently directed the Obscurities to stay put. “Please excuse me,” he murmured to Jocelyn, turning to walk away from her. He wanted his office with the door locked, privacy to keep watch over his wife, as much as he could.
While she had only been semi-joking about the magic, Jocelyn hadn't really expected Caius to answer her beyond some snarky retort or denial. But instead, his eyes went black. Caius's eyes were already dark in her opinion, but this was full-on black and he seemed to zone out in a way that made her think he wasn't really there, even though his body was. She stared, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, unsure as to what she should do. Was he possessed by something? Because whatever he was doing was not normal. Jocelyn was still debating if she should touch him, or say something, but then he blinked again and he was back to normal, whatever normal was. She gaped after him as he walked away and it took her a second or two to finally get her feet moving. "Wait." Jocelyn hurried after him. "Are you serious right now? Do you know what just happened?"
Caius was both annoyed and unsurprised at how the girl jumped to follow him. He stopped at his office door and looked around at her, the frustration evident on his face now. “Of course I know what just happened,” he snapped. “But it’s not for you to know.” He hadn't meant for her to see that, and he was a little ruffled by how quickly the Obscurities had taken over. They were like unruly puppies sometimes, barging ahead without his permission -- they knew it was important to Caius, so it was important to them. He should have better control than that, and he did with everything except Reagan. “I have something to attend to, don’t disturb me,” Caius added as he stepped into his office and moved to shut the door in Jocelyn’s face.
Without thinking Jocelyn shoved her booted foot in the door frame before he should shut it. "Wait! No way." Her palm came up to the door next as she stared at Caius incredulously. "Are you kidding me right now? I asked you about magic and then your eyes go completely black like you're some kind of demon on Supernatural. I'm not going to tell anyone in that lobby what happened, but I saw it, and if you were able to like... project yourself or something, and you know what's going on out there, I want to know." That didn't mean he would tell her, and he might just continue being an asshole, but Jocelyn saw what she saw and she wasn't going to just forget it. "Please," she added, because maybe not being a total bitch would help her case.
“That’s a lot of assumptions,” Caius grumbled, more than a little tempted to kick her foot out of the way and slam the door. There was fear underneath the pestering, he knew that, but that didn’t make it much less aggravating. He shot a wary glance down the hall again, but nobody seemed to be eavesdropping. “It’s nothing demonic,” he lied. Caius would give her an explanation to get her off his back, it didn’t necessarily have to be the full truth. “It’s like a far sight, it comes and goes. I don’t know what’s going on out there, it’s all fog, I could only see my wife. She’s stuck in her car. Satisfied?”
Assumptions maybe, but that's all Jocelyn could do at the moment. Assume and compare to similar things she had seen in movies and the like. The explanation of far sight was a weird one and not at all satisfying since he couldn't tell her what was actually going on. Jocelyn assumed, yet again, that if he could actually see anything he would tell her, unless it was just so awful that he didn't want to frighten anyone. But Caius D'Onofrio didn't seem like the type to coddle people so she opted to believe him. "So you can do magic?" Jocelyn asked. No, she wasn't satisfied, but at least he had given her an answer. "Is your wife safe at least?"
Caius was definitely not going to answer that first question. It was probably obvious to most people who had lived in this town for more than a week, but he was never going to confirm it out loud, especially not to some nosy little twat like this. “She’s alone in a car in the middle of the thickest, coldest fog I’ve ever seen, where I can’t get to her, for who knows how long,” he practically growled. “Of course she’s not safe. Nobody’s safe in this godforsaken town. Now move before I make you even more unsafe.” His eyes were flashing with real anger now. If she believed he could do magic, hopefully she would get the fucking hint not to push him further.
Well that escalated quickly, didn't it? Jocelyn removed her foot from the door so Caius could shut the door. What a cunt. She turned away from the door to stalk back to the lobby to find her mother. If this dickhead was what her mom had to deal with day in and day out, then maybe it was time for retirement. Caius D'Onofrio with his demonic eyes and shitty ass attitude. Her mom should be working somewhere safe. Not here. But Jocelyn would stay out of his way for now, because she wanted to get out of this place in one piece. When that happened though, assuming it did, she was going to ask some questions. Not to Caius the Small Dicked, but to people who might actually give her some legit answers. Until then she just had to mind her own business and wait for this fucking fog to go away.